“Results from recent studies suggest that improved diet quality……was associated with reductions of 8% to 22% in the risk of death from any cause and reductions of 19% to 28% in the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and 11% to 23% in the risk of death from cancer.”

“Here, we evaluated the association between 12-year changes (from 1986 through 1998) in the three diet-quality scores noted above and the subsequent risk of total and cause-specific death from 1998 through 2010 among participants in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.”

“….total and cause-specific mortality among 47,994 women in the Nurses’ Health Study and 25,745 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study from 1998 through 2010.”

“Among participants who maintained a high-quality diet over a 12-year period, the risk of death from any cause was significantly lower — by 14% when assessed with the Alternate Healthy Eating Index score, 11% when assessed with the Alternate Mediterranean Diet score, and 9% when assessed with the DASH score — than the risk among participants with consistently low diet scores over time.”

“Improved diet quality over 12 years was consistently associated with a decreased risk of death.”

M.S.Prieto, et al
Association of Changes in Diet Quality with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality
New England Journal Of Medicine – Volume 377 #2 – July 13, 2017 – page 143